{"id":3405,"date":"2025-09-05T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T09:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/3405\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T09:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T09:00:07","slug":"every-step-to-take-off-counts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/3405\/","title":{"rendered":"Every step to take-off counts"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNBC’s Investing in Space newsletter offers a\u00a0view into the business of space exploration and privatization, delivered straight to your inbox.\u00a0Sign up to receive future editions.<\/a><\/p>\n

CHONGQING, CHINA – MAY 06: In this photo illustration, the logo of Rocket Lab USA, Inc. is displayed on a smartphone screen.<\/p>\n

Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty Images<\/p>\n

Overview: Every step to take-off counts<\/p>\n

If launching a rocket’s a prime feast, opening the doors to the vehicle’s launch pad is a healthy appetizer.<\/p>\n

Last week, Rocket Lab introduced Launch Complex 3<\/a> \u2014 the intended take-off pad of its Neutron rocket \u2014 located within the Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. Neutron itself will arrive a little later to this party, with a first flight targeted this year<\/a> \u2013 but the premiere of the launch site marks a major step for Rocket Lab specifically and for a space industry that’s overall hungry for further launch vehicles.<\/p>\n

The company already produces the small-lift Electron launch vehicle, which was performing its first commercial flights by late 2018. The 141-foot-tall Neutron is an upgrade in scale: a medium-lift reusable rocket that burns liquid methane and oxygen designed to carry payloads up to 13,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO) and 1,500 kilograms for trips to Mars or Venus.<\/p>\n

The market scale for global carrier rockets \u2014 which are designed to launch a payload on a particular route or orbit \u2014 is seen set to expand<\/a> at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9% between this year and 2034. Forgive the pun, but launch demand’s only risen meteorically, with payloads ranging from space exploration and research equipment to humans and defense and telecommunication satellites for fast-evolving networks.<\/p>\n

For years, the industry bemoaned the limited scale of take-off capacity, with European Space Agency’s Director Josef Aschbacher last year acknowledging a “launcher crisis” in Europe that the agency sought to resolve with the launch of the Ariane-6.<\/p>\n

Much of that world’s launch capacity is in the hands of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose take-off cadence last year exceeded that of both commercial competitors and national programs. In 2024, the company saw through more than 130 flights of its workhorse medium-lift Falcon 9, which reuses its first-stage booster and payload fairings. That’s just over half of the 259 orbital launches<\/a> undertaken over the period globally \u2014 and could increase to more than 180 Falcon 9 launches this year, according to Musk’s estimate of December<\/a>. An August launch even carried Kuiper satellites<\/a> for Amazon, whose owner Jeff Bezos’ rival Blue Origin unleashed the New Glenn on its maiden orbital voyage in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s not taking away from SpaceX’s success story to acknowledge the drawbacks of overreliance on a single provider. Toward the middle of the year, U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to cancel government Musk’s government contracts in the midst of an explosive public row led the tech billionaire to fleetingly float the possibility of decommissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft<\/a> \u2014\u00a0 potentially stranding U.S. crew without a ride to and from the International Space Station at the time. The waters have calmed since, and SpaceX and NASA are continuing their partnership, but the incident’s driven home the critical downsides of market dominance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We’ve been over this: getting a brand new rocket model off the ground’s no feat for the feeble. Moscow’s still planning to push through the all-Russian Soyuz-5 by the end of the year, and Relativity Space’s reusable Terran R and Firefly Aerospace’s Eclipse are both currently penciled in for liftoff in 2026. Last month, our collective breaths were held as we watched intently whether the second-iteration Starship variant would prevail in the rocket’s 10th test flight, or face another fiery setback. (Elon Musk’s giant won the day.)<\/p>\n

But, when the global satellite market is projected to expand seven-fold by 2035<\/a>, it’s hard not to see why all eyes are glued when space companies reveal their latest and greatest in brand new rockets \u2014 or their launch pads.<\/p>\n

What’s upCanada prepares its first lunar rover\u00a0\u2014 Canadensys Aerospace is developing the first Canada-built rover to investigate the Moon \u2014 a “logical first step” for future space exploration ambitions, according to the company’s CEO. \u2014\u00a0BBC<\/a>\u00a0Senate hears NASA doubts over return to Moon timeline \u2014 A former NASA administrator told senators it was unlikely that the space agency would be able to put men back on the Moon ahead of Beijing, which has embarked on similar efforts.\u00a0 \u2014 Space News<\/a>ESA spacecraft undertakes Venus flyby\u00a0\u2014 The European Space Agency’s JUICE spacecraft has completed a Venus flyby en route to explore Jupiter’s icy moons and gather data about the planet’s Ganymede, Callisto and Europa moons. \u2014\u00a0Space.com<\/a>Industry maneuversTrump says Space Command HQ to move to Alabama \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. Space Command’s headquarters will move to Alabama from Colorado, citing the latter state’s mail-in voting system. \u2014 NBC News<\/a>White House axes labor unions at NASA\u00a0\u2014 Washington has moved to eliminate collective bargaining rights for several government institutions, including NASA, citing national security. \u2014\u00a0White House executive order<\/a>Market moversRocket Lab reveals new pad ahead of first Neutron rocket launch\u00a0\u2014 Rocket Lab unveiled its new Launch Complex 3 pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, which will be used to test and launch the reusable Neutron rocket that could debut as soon as the end of the year. \u2014\u00a0Defense News<\/a>Andoya Space, Rheinmetall to bolster efforts to boost satellite launch\u00a0\u2014 Andoya Space and Rheinmetall have agreed to strengthen their combined efforts to bolster satellite launch and space capabilities. \u2014\u00a0Defence Industry Europe<\/a>NordSpace’s Taiga launch delayed by tech, weather issues\u00a0\u2014 Ontario-based tech startup NordSpace has postponed the launch of its Taiga rocket \u2014 intended as the first ever commercial rocket take-off from Canadian soil \u2014 after a safety system fault and weather disruptions. The company will attempt again in September. \u2014\u00a0Betakit<\/a>China launches Mexican satellites\u00a0\u2014 China’s CAS Space has launched two satellites from Tijuana-based startup ThumbSat as part of a seven-strong batch launched on the Kinetica-1 rocket. \u2014\u00a0South China Morning Post<\/a>On the horizonSept. 5 \u2013 SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to launch with Starlink satellites out of FloridaSept. 5 \u2013 Galactic Energy’s Ceres 1 to depart with an unknown payload out of Jiuquan, ChinaSept. 6 \u2013 SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to leave with Starlink satellites out of CaliforniaSept. 9 \u2013 CASC’s Long March 6a to launch with an unknown payload out of TaiyuanSept. 11 \u2013 Roscosmos’ Soyuz 2.1a to depart Baikonur, Kazakhstan, with supplies to the International Space Station<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNBC’s Investing in Space newsletter offers a\u00a0view into the business of space exploration and privatization, delivered straight to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4562,553,111,139,69,147,392,4983,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-3405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-breaking-news-technology","9":"tag-business-news","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-space-industry","16":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}